Erbil-Baghdad Discuss Security Cooperation in Disputed Areas
Posted: Sun Aug 04, 2013 4:31 pmERBIL, Kurdistan Region – Senior officials from Erbil and Baghdad are discussing security cooperation in Iraq’s disputed territories that are claimed by both sides, at a time when violence is again on the rise in many parts of the country.
A high-level delegation from Kurdistan’s Peshmarga ministry met in Baghdad Saturday with senior Iraqi military officials to draw up a cooperation mechanism for the disputed lands, according to Jabar Yawar, spokesman of the Pehsmarga ministry.
He said that the two sides are hoping to find a way for the Iraqi army and the Peshmarga forces to patrol volatile parts of Diyala, Kirkuk, Salaheddin and Nineveh provinces.
“We met in order to find the best way for both militaries to control the security of those areas and protect the lives and properties of their residents regardless of their ethnic or religious background,” Yawar said in a statement following his Baghdad meeting.
In the past several years the Iraqi army and Kurdish Peshmarga forces have come close to war in the disputed territories, which are claimed both by the Shiite-led Arab government in Baghdad and the ethnic Kurds, who are predominantly Sunnis and have set up their own autonomous enclave in northern Iraq.
Kurdish authorities say their forces are deployed in parts of Kirkuk, Diyala and Nineveh to protect the Kurdish residents from terrorist attacks. But Baghdad has often accused the Kurds of encroaching upon territories outside the borders of their autonomous Kurdistan Region.
Until the withdrawal of US troops from Iraq in 2011, Iraqi and Kurdish forces had jointly patrolled Iraq’s multiethnic and volatile territories. But soon after, that system fell apart amid mutual accusations of incompetence and petty rivalry.
Yawar said that the Kurdish and Iraqi delegations had agreed to extend security cooperation beyond the disputed areas.
“We reiterated to the Iraqis President (Massoud) Barzani’s pledge that the Peshmarga forces are ready to fight terrorism in any part of Iraq if necessary,” he said.
A UN report last week expressed extreme concern at the rise in violence in Iraq. It said that 238 people were killed in July in Baghdad alone -- nearly as many as the previous month – and that 1,411 people were injured in violence during those two months.
Baghdad’s inability to control the violence has further eroded Shiite Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki’s credibility nationwide.
Iraqi and Kurdish relations soured last year when Kurdish leaders said that Maliki was acting as a dictator and was leading the country toward sectarian war and one-party rule.
But earlier this year a visit by Maliki to Erbil and a short trip by Barzani to Baghdad seem to have returned Erbil-Baghdad relations on a friendly track.
A high-level delegation from Kurdistan’s Peshmarga ministry met in Baghdad Saturday with senior Iraqi military officials to draw up a cooperation mechanism for the disputed lands, according to Jabar Yawar, spokesman of the Pehsmarga ministry.
He said that the two sides are hoping to find a way for the Iraqi army and the Peshmarga forces to patrol volatile parts of Diyala, Kirkuk, Salaheddin and Nineveh provinces.
“We met in order to find the best way for both militaries to control the security of those areas and protect the lives and properties of their residents regardless of their ethnic or religious background,” Yawar said in a statement following his Baghdad meeting.
In the past several years the Iraqi army and Kurdish Peshmarga forces have come close to war in the disputed territories, which are claimed both by the Shiite-led Arab government in Baghdad and the ethnic Kurds, who are predominantly Sunnis and have set up their own autonomous enclave in northern Iraq.
Kurdish authorities say their forces are deployed in parts of Kirkuk, Diyala and Nineveh to protect the Kurdish residents from terrorist attacks. But Baghdad has often accused the Kurds of encroaching upon territories outside the borders of their autonomous Kurdistan Region.
Until the withdrawal of US troops from Iraq in 2011, Iraqi and Kurdish forces had jointly patrolled Iraq’s multiethnic and volatile territories. But soon after, that system fell apart amid mutual accusations of incompetence and petty rivalry.
Yawar said that the Kurdish and Iraqi delegations had agreed to extend security cooperation beyond the disputed areas.
“We reiterated to the Iraqis President (Massoud) Barzani’s pledge that the Peshmarga forces are ready to fight terrorism in any part of Iraq if necessary,” he said.
A UN report last week expressed extreme concern at the rise in violence in Iraq. It said that 238 people were killed in July in Baghdad alone -- nearly as many as the previous month – and that 1,411 people were injured in violence during those two months.
Baghdad’s inability to control the violence has further eroded Shiite Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki’s credibility nationwide.
Iraqi and Kurdish relations soured last year when Kurdish leaders said that Maliki was acting as a dictator and was leading the country toward sectarian war and one-party rule.
But earlier this year a visit by Maliki to Erbil and a short trip by Barzani to Baghdad seem to have returned Erbil-Baghdad relations on a friendly track.